It is one of the most famous Korean traditional dances and designated as South Korea's important intangible cultural asset number 27 in 1969.

Some scholars suggest that this dance originated from “mocking upper-class priests who repeated certain bodily gestures when they were engaged in Buddhist teaching or disciplinary activity”.

Once prohibited during the Joseon dynasty era, it was transformed into a folk dance and developed for the most part by kisaengs.

In 1968, Kim Chʼŏnhong and Hong Yunsik’s investigatory report on the origin of the monk’s dance was that it had no connection to Buddhist temples.

The dance Seungmu stood on it is own as minsok yesul and became the 27th intangible treasure of Korean culture.

[4] The dance and rhythm were mainly improvised in variegated forms in different regions until the 1930s when various styles were archived and choreographed, and some of the performances were officially listed as cultural assets since the 1960s.

The rhythm is heavy and slow, the dancer starts crouched on the ground and slowly and powerfully expands his/her motion to describe the expansion of the universe.

The rhythm becomes more sophisticated and so does the dance, symbolizing the myriad forms of life (birth, growth, aging, death), of the seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter), of human emotions (joy, wrath, sorrow, comfort).

(Cycle 6) Jajinmori, Hwimori: Time goes on, fruits ripen, life matures as it endures the changes.

The flares of the white elongated sleeves amplify the dancer's expression, at times describing the whirls of the galaxy, the winds of the azimuths, the blooming or drooping of life, the gesture of sowing and reaping crops, etc.

As they embody an aesthetic concept, they express their passion through their face and the dance itself, which tells a story of resentment or ecstasy.